SMAC (Social, Mobile, Analytics and Computing) technologies are actively finding space in the Indian banking world. In a recent survey done by CII-PwC survey “Connecting the dots: Wiring business, technology and operations” it has been found that sixty three percent of banking survey respondents confirm that their bank used social media campaigns quite frequently to get leads.

Launched at the CII Banking Technology Summit yesterday, the study highlighted the fact that fifty percent said they were using social media aggregators to help interpret unstructured data. The report further finds that today it has become critical for CIOs to have effective analytics tools and technologies in place, stemming from data mining and predictive analytics.

Other major findings are:

1. Technology is considered as a critical pillar to meet the strategic objectives of the business by sixty three percent of banking survey respondents.

2. Thirty eight percent of the banks felt that technology has played an important role in bringing improvements in operational efficiency.

3. Fifty two percent expects the investment in technology to be primarily around regular maintenance and improvements in infrastructure.

Banking sector would see investments in platforms such as integrated payment hubs which supplement existing core banking systems and provide a consolidated view across all payment channels. Big data use in payments or unstructured areas like social media, customer care and internal communications will mature.

Additionally mobile increased use of mobile specific features such as geo location, camera or scanning and voice identification will also come in play.

However, there has been no information on how many respondents were questioned for the survey and the list of the banks that were considered for the study.

However, the Governor informed that while these are early days, over the time social media can be used as a listening post to pick up the latest frauds. He also added that he brought the idea forward in the conference since the Indian IT sector has been investing aggressively in SMAC technologies which could come up with some worthy solution to the problem.

The country has seen a lot of movement in the SMAC technology space in recent past and with the banking sector investing on it actively, we are going to see more movements in the space.